KHRG #98-07 part 2 of 2 (Ho Murng)

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                   THE SITUATION AROUND HO MURNG

        An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
                June 13, 1998     /     KHRG #98-07

*** PART 2 OF 2 - SEE PREVIOUS POSTING FOR PART 1 OF THIS REPORT ***

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                                   #2.
NAME:    "Loong Kham"   SEX: M   AGE: 43          Shan Buddhist farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 4 children aged 2-15
ADDRESS: Gong Long village, Ho Murng township     INTERVIEWED: 29/4/98

["Loong Kham" farms rice and sesame in his village near Khun Sa's 
former headquarters at Ho Murng.  He recently arrived in Thailand.]

Q:  When did you arrive in Thailand?
A:  I arrived on March 7th.  I came because of the oppression of the 
Burmese, like the others.  I sent my wife and children first and then I
fled.  
I had to do the same things as the others.  There was more [forced] work 
in my place [than in "Sai Heng"'s village; see interview above].  You 
could see a lot of piles of stones along the road in Gong Long, a hundred 
and twenty piles of rocks along the road just for our village.  There were 
more than 30 houses in the village, 35 houses.  We had iron sticks to break

the stones.  One person from each house had to go.  If we had no men, we 
had to replace them by women.  Women and children had to go.  They 
beat the people the same way they did in "Sai Heng"'s village because it 
was the same road, just a different section of it.  The soldiers and their 
chiefs were watching us.

Q:  When did you start to work on that road?
A:  In the tenth month of 1997 [October/November by the Shan calendar].  
In the tenth month it was still raining so we didn't have to work as much, 
we just had to work for about twenty days that month.  It took us three 
months to finish that road [the section they had been assigned], until the 
twelfth month [December].  We had to finish it by then because they said 
that the road had to be finished completely by the end of the year.  We had

to work for them and follow the timetable that they gave us.  If we didn't 
finish on time our village headman would be punished.  We are all Shan 
and we didn't want to see anyone get hurt, so we helped each other and in 
the end nobody had to be punished.

Q:  Do you know where the road was going to?
A:  The road that we built was going from our village to Ta Hung, to Sop 
Paeng, Tza Long and then on to Ho Murng.  There was a lot of erosion 
because the streams are very strong.  In Khun Sa's day they tried to repair

that road, but now in the Burmese days there are no bulldozers or 
backhoes.  Instead of that they use the villagers [Khun Sa used heavy 
equipment but the SPDC rarely does, preferring to use the cheaper option 
of forced labour].  They didn't build a dam on the river, so when the heavy

rains come the water gets higher, the current is very strong and destroys 
the road along the riverbank.  We fixed that road for three months.  This 
road is used by the forestry department [for logging], and the military use

it to carry their supplies and their rations from Lang Kher.

Q:  Did you have to do other work for the Army?
A:  Yes, we also did other things.  When they wanted to build a school 
they tore down the  houses of people who weren't around; some people had 
gone to Thailand or other places, and some had gone away to earn money.  
We had to tear the houses down for them and carry the building materials 
to their camp.  If we hadn't done it we would have been beaten.

Q:  Was anybody forced to move by the Army in your area?
A:  They didn't force us to move in that area because our village is close
to 
the road, they come and stop there when they transport their rations.  They

were [Light Infantry] Battalion #525 from Pan Taw Wet.  There were 
some people who fled the village but they didn't come here [to Thailand], 
they just went to Ho Murng.  A big crowd of us came here - myself, L---, 
N---, K---, and also P---, S---, N---, P---, L---, another one we call
Teacher, 
and T---; altogether 11 families, and also W---, all from the same village.
 
Some others are in other places in Thailand.  Some young people have fled 
to Thailand while their parents stayed behind.

Q:  How did you come here?
A:  We walked through the jungle for two days.  We just hid from the 
soldiers and walked through the jungle, but if we had met the soldiers they

wouldn't have allowed us to come.  We couldn't carry any bags, not even 
any rice, otherwise we would have been accused of providing rice to the 
rebels.  For the same reason we couldn't carry any dried noodles or 
cheroots.  But we didn't even know where the rebels were.  We've never 
seen any rebels, we've just heard about them.

We came as a group to Pang Yon [in Thailand], then we tried to bring 
some of our relatives who were left behind in Nam Kut and Kai Lon.  
Some people from Mai Kai tried to do the same, but the Burmese found 
out and blocked the way.  In the end those people couldn't come, though 
their children are all already here.  In Pang Yon we found day labour to 
survive.  With what we earned for one day we could survive that one day, 
but we were short of food.

Q:  Is it true that the Burmese Army came to see you when you were in 
Pang Yon?
A:  They did, even just 2 days ago on the 27th [of April] they came and 
fired their guns over on the other side of Pang Yon, which is still Thai 
territory, and also at Long Juk which is close to the Thai border.  They 
even came and camped in Mai Kai Long, which is Thai territory, and they 
kept in contact by radio [with their base].  So then the Thai Army also 
went and visited there.  The Thais camped at Hong Yarm, and they also 
went to Mai Kai Long because it is very close by.  Both the Burmese and 
the Thais go up there [Mai Kai Long] quite often.

Q:  Do you think more people are going to try to come to Thailand?
A:  If the villagers can find a way to come they will come.  They can't
stay 
there anymore because of the oppression by the Burmese Army.  They are 
treating the villagers harder and harder all the time.  In the beginning
when 
the [SLORC/SPDC] soldiers first arrived they didn't dare force the 
villagers to do things because there were too many of us, but as the 
number of villagers gets fewer and fewer they treat them harder and 
harder, just like keeping hens in a cage, and people can't find a way out. 

[As the population gets lower the demands for forced labour, food and 
money remain at least the same, so each villager faces a heavier burden.]  
Under the present situation I don't want to go back because we won't be 
able to survive.  Even now the situation there is very hard.

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                                  #3.

[Human rights monitors M.T. of the All-Burma Students' Democratic 
Front (ABSDF) and "Htun Kyi" (not his real name) gave the following 
information in an interview in May 1998.]

M.T.:  On the 27th and 28th [of April] we met 209 people who had fled [to 
Thailand], they were Shan, Pa'O and Palaung.  We interviewed them.  
Among them there was a Shan lady from Nang Kang and she told us about 
her village.  About 1 1/2 hours' walk west of her village there is a
Burmese 
camp, it is Light Infantry Battalion #332.  She said they force the
villagers 
to grow opium and then they collect opium taxes [the money you routinely 
have to pay to SPDC for permission to grow opium].  In the village of that 
lady they have to pay 12,000 Kyats.  They had already paid the taxes, but 
after they had paid and were selling the opium the soldiers arrested them. 

They took all the opium but they didn't do anything to the people.  So they

tell the villagers to grow opium, they take the taxes but then they also
take 
the opium from the villagers when they see them selling or buying it.  The 
porters [who had escaped from SPDC troops] said that in Thing Gaung 
the villagers are growing opium and the Burmese base knows about it, so 
they ordered the villagers to destroy the opium plants; but not all of
them, 
only the opium which is not perfect, the plants which are not a hundred 
percent good.  So the villagers collected money for the widows whose 
opium plants had been destroyed.  [The SPDC probably ordered the plants 
destroyed in order to show it in the media and report it to foreign 
agencies, possibly for a "drug burning" ceremony.] 

"Htun Kyi":  On March 27th the new arrivals were Shans from Ho Murng.  
They said that LIB #332 is in Ho Murng.  It is very close to where they 
grow opium, and the SPDC soldiers force the villagers to go [to work in 
the opium fields].

M.T.:  The SPDC soldiers make the villagers grow the opium.  These are 
new fields, just since last November or December.  The villagers say that 
now many people are growing a lot of opium on the hillsides.
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                                   #4.
NAME:    "Sai Long"         SEX: M   AGE: 30         Shan Buddhist
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children aged 5-9
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Loikaw township               INTERVIEWED: 1/5/98

["Sai Long" was arrested in 1994 for carrying opium and sentenced to 10 
years.  While serving his sentence in Loikaw jail, he was taken as a porter

early this year for SPDC troops patrolling Karenni areas and eventually 
escaped.  The text below is excerpted from the full text of the interview 
with "Sai Long", which is printed as Interview #5 in the report "A 
Struggle Just to Survive:  Update on the Current Situation in Karenni" 
(KHRG #98-06, 12/6/98).]

Q:  When did you arrive here [a refugee camp]?
A:  I arrived here on the 5th of April.  I came here because the SPDC 
forced me to be a porter.  First I was a prisoner in Loikaw jail, then they

took me out of jail and forced me to be a porter.  

Q:  Why were you in jail?
A:  I went to prison because of drugs.  I didn't want to carry opium and I 
never used it, but I had to think of how I could earn a living.  They gave 
me money to carry opium.  A Chinese paid me 500 Kyats for each piece, 
and I carried eight pieces.  I have no idea where it came from.  I carried
it 
from Lwae Neh to Mae Aw, then from Mae Aw to Ho Murng.  They didn't 
sell it in Karenni State, they were selling it to Khun Sa and they 
transported it there [Ho Murng was Khun Sa's headquarters].  I was 
arrested on April 9th 1994 by LIB #530 because I hadn't paid them the 
money.  If you pay them money they don't arrest you.  [The SLORC/SPDC 
charges a tax on those who independently produce or transport opium and 
heroin, and if you don't pay it you are arrested.  His boss had not paid
the 
tax.]  I think you have to pay at least a hundred thousand Kyats, but the 
amount depends on how many pieces you have.  The more you carry, the 
more you have to pay them.  They arrested four people.  I had a trial.  I
got 
a ten-year sentence and I stayed for four years of it.  At first I had to
stay in 
shackles for one and a half years.  My serial number there was xxxx.

                        - [END OF REPORT] -